Where I've Been, Part I: Abigail

Everyone, meet Abby.



Abby, meet everyone.



When my husband got laid off in May, after working 70-hour weeks for 14 years at the same company, we agreed that while he was home and looking for a job, it was also time to get the dog he had always wanted but that we didn't have time to train and incorporate into our cat-centric household. He looked at many different shelters for a couple of months, trying to find just the right dog that would grab our hearts.

Then in the beginning of July he saw this photo on the Wright-Way Rescue website.



Wright-Way finds abandoned and sheltered dogs and cats in downstate Illinois, and posts them on their site to be adopted in the more populated area around Chicago. Twice a week volunteers drive up to Chicago and have adoption days in the city at their building there. It's a great service, and the people there are really helpful and nice.

Anyway, at the time her name was Banana Cake, part of a 7-litter set all named after cakes: Pound Cake, Chocolate Cake, Spice Cake, Coffee Cake, Angel Cake, and Carrot Cake were her siblings, all with the colorings that inspired their names. We actually wanted Angel Cake, a white and orange colored pup, but she was already taken. They (allegedly) are spaniel-beagle mixes, and are expected to become medium-sized dogs about 25-30 pounds.

On July 5, we adopted her. She was eight weeks old and 4.5 pounds. She was frickin' adorable.


Cute but kind of grody. She needed a bath after life in the shelter!





She was so small we could bathe her in the kitchen sink. Look how tiny she is in my husband's hands!



Ah, much better. Her coat is glossy and soft, not matted.




She's still adorable, but she has grown like crazy, especially in the first month we had her. Our neighbors openly wonder what the heck we are feeding her. There are days when I come home and I can visibly see that she grew since I left that morning!







She's so pretty.













OMG she's only 4 months old!

Here's a great visual of her rapid growth. This is her first day home.



Literally 3 weeks later. Look at those legs!



She's 20 pounds as of yesterday, and at 4 months one she's not done yet. I think she is going to be much bigger than their estimate of 25-30 pounds.

We had a hard time coming up with her name; since we tend to give our pets slightly old-fashioned people names, we had to continue with that. Millicent and Maude were front-runners for a while, then I realized we were adopting her on Babyfriend's third birthday, and she had a lovely old-fashioned middle name: Abigail. So Abby/Abigail she became!

Emily and George have had very different reactions to her, and completely opposite of what I expected. Emily, the one who is scared of everything, hissed and got angry when she first saw Abby, but completely took control of their introduction and put the fear of God into Abby. Abby keeps her distance, and the two are slowly learning how to be in each other's presence.



George on the other hand, lost his alpha status the moment Abby saw him. She just jumped on him and tried to ride him like a pony, and despite his hissing and fighting back against her, George lost his dominant position in their relationship. We can't have them together in a room very much yet because Abby is all over him. We have a number of techniques we continue to try with them both, though. Mostly involving Abby being crated or on a leash around our poor old George.




My husband's caption when he texted this to me: "We're trying." Hee.

She is definitely my husband's dog, as he loves dogs unconditionally and he is home with her all day, training and spending time with her. But she loves cuddling on my lap too, and greets me with such joyous excitement when I come home, I can't help but love her too. I'm more of a cat person, but Miss Abby has stolen my heart.

But she is his dog, and has been since her first night when she fell asleep on his chest. She loves sleeping on him.









That said, getting a puppy at 8 weeks is a lot of work. There's housebreaking her, crate-training her, getting the cats used to her, giving her plenty of toys to chew on instead of our furniture and rugs, teaching her commands, and how to walk on the leash without going crazy, etc. When she is awake, one of us has to be watching her the whole time -- we don't have kids and have only had cats so far, so it took some getting used to that much responsibility for something other than ourselves.



But she's worth it. Look at her!!!





Anyway, that's one of the many reasons I've slacked off on posting. More on that to come. Right now I have to go play with my cute puppy.

P.S. Thanks to everyone who left notes and emails seeing where I was. I've been meaning to post for a while, but you guys definitely guilted me into finally doing it! :)